


reflections

by lordyuuri



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Drama, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Post-War, Reflection, Reminiscing, Sort Of, Sylvain-centric, and felix/annette, mainly sylvain/bernadetta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:20:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22468540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordyuuri/pseuds/lordyuuri
Summary: Now, the dust has settled for him, for them all.
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Bernadetta von Varley
Kudos: 42





	reflections

Bernadetta snores lightly in her sleep.

In the past, her fingers would be clenched tightly as she slept. Sometimes, she would begin to shake, and Sylvain would lightly rouse her from whatever nightmare she was having.

She’s still, now, making the occasional movement to sleep on her side or drape her arm across Sylvain. No frightened murmurs, no clenched fingers. It is quiet. It is calm.

His Bernie has changed. They've all changed. Even Sylvain himself, which still surprises him. He never expected that he himself, of all people, will soon be a father. Never expected to have settled down, to have calmed down, to have a normal life.

Felix says peacetime is boring. Too quiet, he says. There’s no thrill without chaos. Annette would say that's a good thing. “Keeps you two out of trouble,” she says as she's handing them tea and sweets during Sylvain’s visits to the Fraldarius house. Felix would complain about his weapons getting rusty, his skills becoming dull, the quiet growing louder. Good, good, Annette would say.

But the quiet leaves way too much room to think. In the dead of night, Sylvain hears Felix’s voice. Too quiet, too quiet.

There's a surreal feeling to being grounded. Standing on your own two feet and moving, but not moving fast. No, far from moving fast, charging, weapon in hand and life on the line. No screaming, no crying, no violent determining of what’s right for Fódlan. Nearly six years of fighting, of grief, of chaos, and then –

It all ends. His professor is the archbishop and Dimitri is the king of all of Fódlan and Felix is married and Ingrid is  _ both _ married and a knight and —

All has changed.

There’s shuffling. In the dead of night, Sylvain hears Bernadetta’s voice. It is quiet, soft like the feather of pegasus.

“You're awake?” Her voice cradles him, brings him back down to Earth. It settles him, it grounds him. He turns to look at her, her face becoming recognizable as his eyes adjust to the darkness.

Bernadetta gazes at him.

“Yeah. Can't sleep.”

She nuzzles against him and hums a response – her arm is across his chest, her face against the crook of his neck. It took a long time for her to initiate such tender, physical moments, which he was okay with. But now she has changed; she’s stronger now, risen from the dust, growing, blossoming into beauty, into radiance. He is stronger now, reforged, reformed, renewed. They all are stronger now in this time of peace, of tranquility. Stronger, better, the shells of their former selves left in the past.

All has changed.

Sylvain places his hand on Bernadetta’s hand and drifts to sleep. It is quiet. It is calm.

**Author's Note:**

> Oof haven't written a 3H fic in forever. I'm on part 2 of both BE routes, but I got distracted by Pokémon Sword lol. And now that Byleth's in Smash, I'm super distracted. I really need to finish those routes and then I would have officially completed the game lol.
> 
> Anyway ye I had this in the works for a while but just now finished it. Sylvain's one of my favorite characters, and he's on the complex side, so I like to think about him a lot. I got some other short stories in the works that hopefully I won't procrastinate on but I know I will lol.


End file.
